One Ingredient Challenge: Eclairs and Puffs

Part of an ongoing series of cooking from scratch. That is, we cook something from basic items that don't have multiple ingredients (e.g. store-bought spaghetti sauce includes all sorts of spices and maybe other stuff too; we'd start with tomatoes and individual spices and add them together to make our own sauce). See other challenges here.

We have been watching a lot of The Great British Baking Show  (actually known as The Great British Bake Off in the UK). A recent episode featuring eclairs inspired us to try a home version. In the following photos you can see who in the family is the biggest fan of this show and who was the driving force behind this challenge.

We used the pastry recipe found here (thanks Martha!).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs, plus possibly 1 large egg white, if needed (we didn't)

Directions:
Boil the butter, sugar, salt and one cup of water in a medium saucepan. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in the flour.

Adding flour

Stirring

Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, about three minutes until a film forms on the bottom of the pan.

Cooking over heat

Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until slightly cooled (about one minute). Raise speed to medium; add whole eggs, one at a time, until soft peaks form when batter is touched with your finger. We had a non-electric mixer:

Adding eggs

Testing for peaks

If peaks don't form, lightly beat remaining egg white and mix into a batter a little at a time until it does.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Transfer the pastry mix (called Pate a Choux) to a pastry bag with a 5/8-inch plain tip. For puffs, pipe dough into 2-inch rounds about 1 inch apart.

Making puffs

Gently flatten the pointed peaks with a moistened finger, rounding tops to ensure even rising. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 25 minutes. The profiteroles should feel light and airy. Remove puffs from oven and transfer sheets to wire racks to cool completely.

Cooling completely

For eclairs, pipe the dough in 3 1/2 inch lengths on the parchment-papered baking sheets. Smooth the tops and brush with egg wash as for the puffs and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Raw eclairs - we did 6 inch lengths, whoops

We made a simple whipped cream filling instead of bothering with a creme patisserie.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream, chilled
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (we used our own homemade.  Single ingredients!)

Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla on low speed until frothy and the sugar has dissolved. Increase the speed to high and continue to whip until doubled in volume and soft peaks form.

What to do with any leftover cream (though you probably already knew to do this)

We were too tired to attempt a chocolate glaze by this point, so we just melted some chocolate chips in the microwave. Please don't tell Martha.

Filling with cream and covering with chocolate

A cook's privilege

Finished product

Book Review: Avatar The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow Part Two by Gene Luen Yang et al.

Avatar The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow Part Two written by Gene Luen Yang, art and covers by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

See my review of Part One here.

Avatar Aang is summoned to the Fire Nation capital to help Fire Lord Zuko deal with their latest crisis. Children are being kidnapped in the middle of the night by the dark spirits known as Kemurikage. The legends of these spirits go back for centuries but solid information about them is scarce. Aang and Zuko go into the Dragonbone Catacombs (where previous Fire Lords are buried) in hopes of finding some answers. In the meantime, Ukano (secretly a member of the New Ozai Society trying to overthrow Zuko) stirs up trouble in the city by forming a volunteer militia to fight the spirits. He thereby undercuts the authority of Zuko. Is he really interested in protecting the city or is he still working the political angle of the situation?

The story is more of the same goodness I've come to expect from Yang and the gang. The plot is interesting with enough action and jokes and history (albeit fake history) thrown in. Very satisfying and I can't wait for the conclusion of the story.

Glen Echo Playground, Maryland

We went to Glen Echo Park hoping to see the new aquarium there. It was the early afternoon on New Year's Eve and it turned out they were closed for for New Year's Eve and Day. We consoled ourselves by trying out the playground and exploring the park a bit.

Entrance to the closed aquarium (yes, the tree house is a boat!)

The playground was a lot of fun and had equipment for all pre-teen ages.

Some equipment

A large climber 

More challenging climber

The most popular by far with my children were the swings. Everyone (except the parents) took turns.

A happy boy

Big sister lends a hand 

Big brother swings and snaps fingers?

Flying high

This is a close up from a different picture, really!

High on the other end

We also explored the park. The carousel was also closed (though we knew that beforehand).  It was built in 1921. The canopy and carved figures were hand-crafted by the Dentzel Carousel Company in Germantown, Pennsylvania. It has undergone extensive restoration and is open for rides from May to September.

Carousel

The Bumper Car Pavilion doesn't have any cars and is used mostly for dancing on weekends.

Bumper Car Pavilion 

The Spanish Ballroom is also used for dances and they were decorating for the big New Year's Eve shindig later that night. It was built in 1933 and follows a Mediterranean-influenced Art Deco style. My wife and I used to dance there many years ago.

Spanish Ballroom

Nearby is the entrance for the Crystal Pool, a popular attraction back in the day when the park was an amusement park. The pool was large and could accommodate hundreds of swimmers. The pool has been filled in but the entrance remains.

Crystal Pool entrance (it was too cold to go swimming anyway)

Book Review: The Woodcutter by Kate Danley

The Woodcutter by Kate Danley

The Wood is a magical place full of Fae creatures, some of whom wish to harm and others who wish to help visitors. The Wood is taken care of (he doesn't really rule) by the Woodcutter, who whispers to the plants and has never felled an unwilling tree. His other duty is to maintain the peace between the Twelve Kingdoms of Men and the Realm of the Faerie. Things are amiss when he discovers a maiden murdered in the woods. Her glass slippers are chipped but she has no other injuries. Was she frightened to death? The Woodcutter must solve the mystery since she was fated to marry a prince from one of the Twelve Kingdoms. More trouble arise. He discovers another maiden being stalked by one of Odin's hellhounds. Pixies being harvested for their potent dust (a mythical parallel to the drug trade). All the while, the Woodcutter longs to return to his wife and provide for her a son who will one day inherit his duties.

The story starts slow but builds up to a good conclusion. Where it really shines is its masterful blend of a myriad of fairy tales and myths. These elements are woven together quite seamlessly and to great effect, reminding me of the first half of the Broadway musical Into the Woods. The material is familiar but well-written and has enough differences to make it feel fresh and enjoyable. The Woodcutter is a quick and delightful read.

Movie Review: Day Watch (2006)

Day Watch (2006) co-written and directed by Timur Bekmambetov

After the tough ending of the last film, Light Other Anton Gorodetsky is back in emotional doldrums. He has been partnered with Svetlana to train her in Night Watch duties and abilities. She flirts with him but he's too grumpy and self-absorbed. They are called to investigate a Dark Other who is attacking an old lady in public. On the scene, Anton recognizes the boy as his son, who has joined the Dark Others because he thinks his dad wanted to kill him in his mother's womb (it's complicated, see the first movie). Naturally he wants to protect his son from harm, but the son is very powerful and could trigger the end of the world. The Others have the ability to go into the Gloom, a sort of alternate dimension of human reality. There is a sub-level of the Gloom that only the most powerful Others can enter. The son flees there and Svetlana follows. Anton can't go there, so she is clearly more powerful (she almost triggered the end of the world in the last movie). The boy escapes and tension mounts as Anton tries to cover his son's tracks and avoid a murder rap for a Dark Other who has mysteriously died.

One possible tool Anton could use is the Chalk of Fate, which allows the user to go back in time and do things differently. The movie opens with a scene in ancient Asia where a guy named Tamerline breaks into the fortress protecting the Chalk and steals it. He eventually dies and legend has it the Chalk is buried with him in his tomb. Can Anton sneak off to Samarkand and save his own family, if not the whole world?

The movie has a lot of story elements woven into it and not all are fully developed. At one point the Inquisitors show up. They are a group of people who keep the treaty between the Dark and Light Others, which is fully explained in the books but comes out of left field in this movie (they were not mentioned in the first film and it seemed that the Dark and Light were enforcing the treaty on each other). Other parts of the storytelling are choppy as well. The ending is satisfying morally but does feel like a cheat narratively.

The special effects are amazing but not as inventive as in the first film. The scale is much larger and more things happen in the real world, less in the Gloom. The highly stylized subtitles of the first film are gone, though I'd say that was because the first film didn't do well at the American box office so they put less effort into subtitling the sequel. It's a shame because the subtitling added to the mystique of their world.

If you liked the first film, definitely watch this one to see the end of the story. But this film doesn't really stand on its own and is not as good as the first film.

Movie Review: Night Watch (2004)

Night Watch (2004) co-written and directed by Timur Bekmambetov

In modern-day Moscow, Anton goes to an old crone with magical powers to get his girlfriend back. She agrees to help him but tells him his girlfriend is pregnant with the other guy's baby. She can make the woman come back to him but that requires killing the baby. Anton needs to take the moral responsibility on himself--he has to choose deliberately to commit this sin. He skeptically agrees and she begins concocting a potion. He drinks it and then she has to clap her hands to kill the baby. At the last minute, he changes his mind. Before he can stop her, she seems to be possessed. Something is preventing her from clapping. As the potion disorients Anton, he can see some other people in the apartment manhandling the witch. They subdue her and then start filling out paperwork on her illegal use of magic. Anton asks them what is going on. They realize he can see them and that he is an Other.

The Others are a special minority of the population that have mystical abilities. Some are vampires, others shapeshifters, still others clairvoyants. These Others have existed for centuries and the good Light Others have been at war with the evil Dark Others. In medieval times, the two sides had a large but indecisive battle. The two leaders (Geser for the Light and Zavulon for the Dark) make a truce where they will regulate each others' action, especially when dealing with regular mortals. The Light Others form the Night Watch to keep an eye on the activities of the Dark Others. The Day Watch is made of Dark Others who police the activities of the Light Others. The truce has been a precarious balance that risks falling into a world-ending conflict.

Anton decides to be a Light Other and joins the Night Watch (Others always have a choice to be good or evil and must explicitly choose which side they will be on). He becomes a field agent but is not very good. His current assignment is to follow a young boy who is being lured by Dark vampires. As he goes along, he spots a young women who has a special curse that may trigger the world-ending conflict. Geser wants to maintain the status quo but Zavulon schemes to get the boy and maybe end the world.

The movie is a Russian production with a highly-stylized, slick, dystopian look (or maybe it's just post-Soviet grunge). The visuals are inventive. Even the subtitles are crafted to enhance the storytelling. When the Dark vampires call the boy, the hypnotic voice has red subtitles that wash in and out like red mist or blood in water. The movie is impressive just for watching.

The story is also well told. The Night Watch, even though they are the side of light and good, have questionable methods and plenty of flaws. Anton is a mess and slowly gets his act together through the film, though not enough for a very happy ending. Doing the right thing is never easy and making up for past mistakes is a greater challenge than any characters can anticipate. The movie has some nice ethical complexity to go along with the production values.

Book Review: Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 1 by Brian Michael Bendis et al.

Jessica Jones: Alias Volume 1 written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Michael Gados, and coloring by Matt Hollingsworth

After seeing the television show, I was curious to read the Jessica Jones comics. The comics are part of the Marvel Max line, which are intended for seventeen-year olds and up (i.e. R-rated content). There's a little bit of violence and blood, one sex scene without nudity, and a lot of swearing. A lot of swearing. And conversations about adult topics. So the content is there, mostly in support of making it a modern-day noir.

Jessica Jones is a former superhero who's hung up her cape and working as a private eye in New York City. In the comic, her cases gravitate toward superhero involvement. For example, a woman comes to the office worried about her sister who is seeing a new guy and things are moving too fast. The sister has been out of touch for too long. The woman wants Jessica to investigate. She finds the woman and things get blown way out of proportion. It turns into a grand conspiracy in the best of noir storytelling. Jessica does a lot of the hard work on her own, with occasional help from other Marvel heroes.

Jessica is an interesting character here. She implies that her powers weren't special enough to be a major superhero (and that she outgrew wearing costumes). She isn't quite smart enough to be a great private investigator either. She knows her limitations so when things get out of hand she gets a little paranoid and the story gets more exciting. She's more likable and a better person than in the TV show.

The art is an interesting blend of Mike Mignola's Hellboy and Guy Davis's B.P.R.D. So the book has a good noir vibe visually. I'm not sure the language was really necessary to sell it as noir though the book would just barely be R-rated otherwise. The stories have a lot to do with the psychology of the characters which probably is less interesting to younger readers. I found them fascinating and the twists were enjoyable. I will read more.